I had an F31 demo a couple of weeks ago and it came with the Pro Media pack. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it did play video from a USB no problem at all.

I tend to just copy over my entire iTunes music folder on to a USB and plug it in under the armrest. You may know that occasionally iTunes album purchases include a video or two as 'free' extras. The Pro Media on my 2011 E91 just used to ignore these but the Pro Media on a 2012 F31 just played them.

I'm guessing it's down to which file formats are supported. Check your handbook.

I had an F31 demo a couple of weeks ago and it came with the Pro Media pack. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it did play video from a USB no problem at all.

I tend to just copy over my entire iTunes music folder on to a USB and plug it in under the armrest. You may know that occasionally iTunes album purchases include a video or two as 'free' extras. The Pro Media on my 2011 E91 just used to ignore these but the Pro Media on a 2012 F31 just played them.

I'm guessing it's down to which file formats are supported. Check your handbook.

To my knowledge and what I have seen the F30 does not have such a package called Pro Media. I know people can play with iPhone 4/4S but you have to have the cradle. Simply plugging in the USB does not work when I tried an iPhone 4.

As I mentioned, these are videos on a USB stick plugged into the armrest socket. Unfortunately I'm still driving the F31 with the lower spec Business Media so I can't replicate playback at the moment or experiment with different formats. However, I seem to recall on the Pro Media when playing something and then moving the iDrive controller to 'Search' on the left hand side of the screen there was a pop up for Music, Videos or (I think) Playlists.

As I mentioned, these are videos on a USB stick plugged into the armrest socket. Unfortunately I'm still driving the F31 with the lower spec Business Media so I can't replicate playback at the moment or experiment with different formats. However, I seem to recall on the Pro Media when playing something and then moving the iDrive controller to 'Search' on the left hand side of the screen there was a pop up for Music, Videos or (I think) Playlists.

That's odd. Unfortunately I don't have my new motor for a few weeks yet so I can't give a detailed description of the procedure yet.

I can't see BMW excluding it entirely from the US market. It has to be down to the individual options specified. Your options do differ from ours (eg you have different packs etc) but mainly what comes with what rather than options not available at all.

I'll dig out the handbook and see what that says. It's a generic F3x handbook so should detail the function even though I don't have it at the moment.

And surely you can still play DVD movies if that floats your boat? Even my E91 did that. Handy for the kids during those hours you spend waiting for the other half while she's shopping...